Controversy
On 26 June 2007, the police board announced that it had hired Kashmir (Kash) Heed to begin as the new Chief Constable. The department had been without a Chief Constable since the 5th of December 2006, when Scott Armstrong's position as Chief Constable was terminated. Revelations of an after-hours social gathering at the police station, and the subsequent impaired driving arrest of a West Vancouver police constable, were the speculated reasoning for Armstrongs termination as Chief Constable. The city's mayor, however, denied the two incidents were linked.
On January 21, 2009, three off duty police officers were arrested after allegations of racial abuse, assault, and participation in a robbery in downtown Vancouver. The victim was identified as Firoz (Phil) Khan, a newspaper deliveryman. The police constables were then employed by; the Delta Police Department, West Vancouver Police Department and New Westminster Police Service. On January 26, 2009, the Vancouver Police Department recommended to Crown Counsel for criminal charges to be laid against the NWPS member for assault and possession of stolen property and the WVPD officer for robbery. At the same time, the DPD officer was cleared of any wrongdoing.
On January 27, 2009, the WVPD officer Griffin Gillan, was suspended with pay for 30 days the pending criminal charges. On January 28, 2009, Crown counsel approved one count of robbery against Gillan. Griffin Gillan was convicted of assault, and was sentenced to a 21 day conditional sentence plus six months probation. Following several disciplinary investigations, the officer was retained by the West Vancouver Police Department despite the criminal record, with a reduction in rank for one year.
Read more about this topic: West Vancouver Police Department
Famous quotes containing the word controversy:
“Ours was a highly activist administration, with a lot of controversy involved ... but I’m not sure that it would be inconsistent with my own political nature to do it differently if I had it to do all over again.”
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